Despite a potent offense, the Dallas Cowboys were done in by dreadful defense that cost them a playoff berth for a second straight season.
Turn out the lights, the party’s over.
With a little help from Willie Nelson, former NFL quarterback and narrator Don Meredith would routinely herald closing time before it was cool on the original editions of Monday Night Football. Alas for all but one of football’s 32 finest, it’s over before the desired Vince Lombardi Trophy hoist, as the season, or at least the championship-contending portion of it, has come to an end.
With that in mind, TeamFB7 goes over the season that was for the fallen, looking at what was, what is, and what could be. America’s Team is next to face judgement, as the Dallas Cowboys are next on our list …
Team: Dallas Cowboys
Record: 7-9-1
Date of Playoff Death: Dec. 20
Last Playoff Season: 2023
What Went Wrong
Dallas, led by new head coach Brian Schottenheimer, dominated the two sides of the ball. Alas for America’s Team, football is played with three.
Despite further mastery from quarterback Dak Prescott, who took advantage of free agents newcomers like George Pickens and Javonte Williams, and seemingly weekly orthopedic history from kicker Brandon Aubrey, the Cowboys were constantly forced to play catchup with the worst kind of Doomsday Defense.
The lone surefire bet in football this season was choosing the over in a Dallas game, as the Cowboys ranked seventh in points scored and dead-last in tallies allowed. The yardage situation featured only a larger discrepancy: only the Los Angeles Rams put up more this season — and only the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Commanders beat them out at the bottom.
The Cowboys’ first failed stop came before any form of kickoff: a friendly financial fire showdown at the AT&T corral, the worst of counter to the idea that owner/general manager Jerry Jones couldn’t watch another offseason from the sideline, ended with defensive franchise face Micah Parsons being allowed to leave, as he was traded to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for two first-round choices and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
Parsons wasn’t the only one veteran staple on the Dallas front seven to move on: fellow pass rush sensation DeMarcus Lawrence publicly professed professed that he’d have a better championship chance elsewhere — and was immediately proven correct upon his move to the Pacific Northwest.
The pressure drop was instantly noticeable: Dallas kept up its conventional blitzing numbers relatively well, thanks mostly to veterans on prove-it deals (Jadeveon Clowney, Dante Fowler Jr.), a second-round steal in Donovan Ezeiruaku, and the trade deadline arrival of former New York Jets defensive savior Quinnen Williams. But the Cowboys still ranked in the lower-third in official sacks and only two defenders (Clowney and James Houston) had more than four quarterback takedowns this season. Thus, the stabilized pressure failed to make up for the issues in the secondary.
Dallas surrendered the most yards per game through the air and the most net yards per attempt at 7.2. Only the aforementioned Jets, a team that did not register an interception this season, allowed a worse passer rating, an output of 109.6 that wouldn’t be out of place on Prescott’s ledgers.
All that was despite mostly rolling with the same lineup in the secondary, with the late of exception of Trevon Diggs, who was released in December amidst a third consecutive injury-marred season. Even with Clark performing reasonably well in the interior considering the massive replacement expectations upon him, the Cowboys’ run defense was hardly any better, ranking in the bottom 10 in most average carry and total allowed on the ground. That led to a surprising strategy of buying at the trade deadline, as Williams and Logan Wilson were effectively North Texas’ consolation prizes for the Cowboys’ hardwood brothers giving up Luka Doncic at the NBA’s prior transactional freeze.
Their arrivals partly led to some false hope in the form of highly-publicized wins over Super Bowl participants Philadelphia and Kansas City, but reality came calling for the Cowboys after that, pushing them to a third consecutive decade without a conference title game appearance and their first instance of consecutive losing seasons since Dave Campo’s trio of five-win tours at the top of the new millennium.
No matter what Dallas did offensively (it earned the most yards per drive and ran the second-most in the same criteria, all despite top receiver CeeDee Lamb having a relative down year with eight drops), it couldn’t make up for the defense’s shortcomings. It wound up resorting to excessive penalties, as the 1,142 yard that the unit surrendered in yellow flag charges was but a yard shy of the lowly New York Giants’ mark this year.
The historically poor outings led to the immediate ousting of defensive coordinator and ex-Chicago Bears boss Matt Eberflus. Dallas lured a divisional foe out to serve as his replacement, hiring recent Super Bowl champion and former Philadelphia defensive overseer Christian Parker. Returning to the Lone Star State after a year on Jimbo Fisher’s debut staff at Texas A&M, Parker has hinted that he’ll primarily focus on his traditional 3-4 set (an approach the Cowboys haven’t taken since the Rob Ryan days of the early 2010s) while leaving the door open for surprises and adaptability.
Silver Linings
— For all the (rightful) flack Jones has face for recent roster management … or lack thereof, considering Parsons’ departure … the ones he went out for brought the offense to a new level. Williams, whom many had given up on after enduring several major medical tears in his second season with the Denver Broncos, became one of the more reliable backs in the league to the tune of 4.8 yards a carry (picking up a career-best 1,201 in total) and 13 total touchdowns. Pickens was a spring afterthought due to supposed character issues left behind in old locale in Pittsburgh but wound up becoming the Cowboys’ most reliable catcher in the clutch. As signers of one-year deals, the whole cycle to going to kick off again, but Cowboys fans can only hope that Jones learns from the experience and continues to spend in the quest to catchup to the evolving divisional environments in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. Whether Pickens’ success is a byproduct of Prescott, who continues to get the best out of his receivers in a muted manner, remains to be seen.
— With the exception of the four-year Bill Parcells cameo, the position of Cowboys head coach has often been a hodgepodge of yes men and headset wearers better off in assistant spots. The hiring of Brian Schottenheimer seemed curious at the time, as it felt like an addition from a bygone era, one where they brought in a coordinator from the 2000s into one of the most pressure-packed spots in sports. Schottenheimer’s offensive prowess not only kept the Cowboys’ season rolling for far longer than they deserved but he also kept the team together in the face of unspeakable tragedy, namely the death of second-year defender Marshawn Kneeland. Unlike his predecessors in the role of Arlington sheriff, Schottenheimer was not granted a roster that was saddled with championship expectations. His ability to make the best of things should bode well for the Cowboys’ path forward on a dangerous landscape. The instant switch from Eberflus to Parker may be a hint that Schottenheimer has a more special place in Jones’ inner circle, as JerryWorld has often been quite a forgiving locale, particularly in the bittersweet new millennium.
Looking Ahead
Notable Free Agents: K Brandon Aubrey, EDGE Jadeveon Clowney, DE Dante Fowler Jr., LB Kenneth Murray, WR George Pickens, WR Jalen Tolbert, EDGE Sam Williams, RB Javonte Williams, S Donovan Wilson
Potential Cap Cuts: DT Kenny Clark ($21.5 million), OT Terence Steele ($14 million*), S Malik Hooker ($6.8 million), LB Logan Wilson ($6.5 million), WR/KR KaVontae Turpin ($3.4 million*) P Bryan Anger ($3.1 million), DT Solomon Thomas ($2.4 million), WR Jonathan Mingo ($1.9 million)
(*-post-June 1)
It could be a summer of restructuring in Dallas, which currently sits near $25 million over the cap, the second-highest tally on the league ledgers. The team began a purge early with the release of Logan Wilson, who had fallen out of the defensive rotation after the initial hype.
Wilson could be the first of several defensive depth casualties, but Clark could be the biggest quandary of all: he creates eight figures in cap space and is the wrong side of 30 but his unintentional status as one of the most notorious footnotes in Cowboys history might force Jones, and Parker by extension, to see what they have in him.
The Cowboys might be able to get away with keeping Aubrey (a restricted free agent) but the biggest order of business is Pickens, who will likely be franchise tagged at just under $29 million. Pickens will likely be looking for both financial and employment stability, so it’ll be interesting to see how many more moves (and contract restructures) they’ll need to seemingly satisfy the receiver, who has spoken highly of his single starred season. Equally up for debate is the status of Williams, who picked a perfect time to have a resurgent season now that divisional rival Saquon Barkley has re-established the value of a rusher.
The lingering positive of the Parsons deal is that the Cowboys are currently carrying two first-round choices, a quandary they’ve not had to ponder since 2008 (choosing Felix Jones and Mike Jenkins back then). It’s likely that that both choices this time, if they elect to keep them, will center on defense and there will be no shortage of selections in the 11th and 20th slots.
Is There Hope?
It all depends on what Jones has learned from the recent campaigns.
The relatively consequence-free Wilson gambit (costing but only a seventh-round choice) shouldn’t stop Jones from spending once the cap is under control, as divisional foes have shown a bold willingness to change while the Cowboys have remained relatively static. At the rate the offense has gone, there’s no reason they should be struggling to post winning records, but it just goes to show how far the defense has fallen.
Bringing in a fresh face like Parker, already well-accomplished despite his youth, is a strong statement in these cap-hampered circumstances. Dallas probably still isn’t in a spot where it is any closer to ending its infamous drought of final four appearances and it’ll be hard to fully fill all the holes that have extended that denial. But the hire of Parker is at least a hopeful hint of Jones willing to collaborate in his old age, an unexpected willingness to admit to a mistake. The longer it lasts, the better off the Cowboys are going to be in the long-term.
Previous Obituaries
- New York Giants
- Arizona Cardinals
- New Orleans Saints
- Tennessee Titans
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Washington Commanders
- Atlanta Falcons
- New York Jets
- Cleveland Browns
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Minnesota Vikings
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Miami Dolphins
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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